PCT Day 61 - A change of scene

We got up early this morning. We wanted to buy some things from the store before we started hiking but it didn’t open until 9am, so at 7am we hopped on the free shuttle and took a ride around the area. We were the only ones on the bus, we chatted to the driver and he turned up the heat to keep us toasty. What a great job to have!

After our 50 minute journey we packed up our stuff – the hat got binned (too wet, too stinky) and I discovered some creature had chewed through my bag to get to some old Oreos.

We headed to the store. There were a bunch of hikers there waiting and a big cheer went up when it finally opened its doors! I had a bag of Fritos and a can of bean dip for breakfast (Growler had an ice cream!) and a soda of course, possibly the last one for 8 days. We sat and chatted with Costco and suds and hops and some new people we hadn’t met before.

Eventually it was time to go and we hiked out with Costco – each time he blazes ahead and I think that will be the last time we see him, then we always see him in the next town.

We started our hike and it was sunny and warm! A pleasant change! we noticed the change in the landscape immediately – less Sierra more Yosemite. Lots of rocks with a glacial polish.

There were lots of signs along the way which taught us about the landscape. We made a quick stop at soda springs and the Sierra club buildings built in the early 1900s. It felt like we were on a day trip!

Then it really was time to start hiking. The terrain today was gently rolling, little ups and downs – the trail went over the glacial rock and the way was indicated by little rock cairns – not always easy to see with my shoddy eyesight! The trail went through open rock, forests and meadows.

We stopped at a Tuolumne falls, everything here is just so beautiful.

We passed Glen Aulin – meaning ‘beautiful glen’ in Gaelic, and it really was beautiful, and it was good to see the trail blaze again…

As we were hiking I thought my bum hurts and my shoulder hurts – it took me a while to realise that they are probably a result of my falls yesterday.

I bumped into the excitable young women I met yesterday and they were struggling with their packs which weigh about 60lb! (mine weighs about 35lb at its heaviest) Ladies man and Mr Delite (whom we leapfrogged with most of the day) were helping them out. They gave them their maps as they were relying on electronics they couldn’t charge and this morning started walking south instead of north.

I caught up to growler in a meadow and I must have got at least 10 new bites in the 2 minutes I was there. I have approximately 367 bites now. Go and bite someone else!!!

The plan was to camp at 16 miles in but we stopped at 15 miles, such a beautiful camp area next to a creek in Virginia Canyon (after a major creek crossing) and there seems to be very few mosquitoes right now! My body was in agony today, and my normal favourite – downhill – was the worst. My feet ached, my ankles were weak, my knees and hips hurt. The actual bones in my legs felt like they were hurting. I thought after 950 miles I would be finding this easier!!

We arrived just after 5 so we had a leisurely time eating and setting up camp. The mozzies started coming out around 7 so we headed to our tents. Being in bed at 7 means we should be able to get an early start tomorrow!!